Obama, McCain Put Gloves Back On For Smith Dinner

WCBS-TV New York ^ | 10/16/08 | Marcia Kramer

[chet_in_ny]

Candidates Bash Each Other Some More On Thursday, But Then Arrive In Manhattan For Classy Political Event

After a fiery and final debate, presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and John McCain will be together again Thursday night in Manhattan.

The two archrivals will be sitting at the same dinner table, just 19 days away from the election.

It's the event no politician wants to miss.

The candidates will be at the Waldorf Astoria for the annual Al Smith Dinner, but Thursday morning they were out on the campaign trail playing tit for tat in an escalating series of attacks. With less than three weeks left to go it seems that's what it's all about.

At Wednesday night's debate at Hofstra University McCain gave Obama the perfect opening for his latest attack ad.

"Senator Obama, I am not President Bush," McCain said. "If you wanted to run against President Bush you should have run four years ago."

While Obama was met by huge crowds in Londonderry, N.H., his aides had a brand new ad up Thursday morning.

"Senator Obama, I am not President Bush," the ad says.

"True … but you did vote with Bush 90 percent of the time."

In true tit-for-tat true fashion, Team McCain swung right back with its own ad.

"Your savings, your jobs, your financial security are under siege. Washington is making it worse, bankrupting us with their spending, telling us paying higher taxes is 'patriotic' and saying we 'need to spread the wealth around,'" the ad states.

[writer33]

I’m sure the Maha will have some sound bites tomorrow.

[Lancey Howard]

"True … but you did vote with Bush 90 percent of the time."

Can somebody please explain this to me? I was under the impression that the President gets no vote. Can Hussein be so out of touch he doesn't know this? Thanks!

[cmurphy]

Hey, I found the video:

Video

A really good copy should be here soon: Video from C-Span

[ETCM]

I remember watching this in 2000 with Bush and Gore, and while Bush was absolutely hilarious, even Gore was pretty darn funny. In 2004, I seem to remember Kerry refused to participate, saying the issues facing the country were too funny to joke about.

Too bad I missed this one, being underway. Maybe I'll catch it next month..

[SusanScuba]

McCain was hilarious!

Where has THAT guy been? Seriously!

[GoLightly]

FOX had it. Sorry I didn’t respond to you earlier.

[GoLightly]

I saw it twice & McCain was great. You could see Bambi’s peeve through his faked smile.

[WestCoastGal]

Thank you I did catch it on CSPAN and here’s part 1 of several videos of his hillarious speech. He has a great comedic delivery and had most everyone rolling with laughter.

And a ping to Lucyt for her group, we could all use a laugh these days. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRSmQqw65Pg